Goliath of Gath: The Champion Whose Sword Outlived Him

A Champion of Gath in the Days of the Kingdom

Goliath (Hebrew גׇּלְיַת) is described in one line as a gigantic man, a giant living at the time of the United Monarchy, in the era placed around 1095 BC to 975 BC on Ussher's chronology (1650). His name appears in six verses spread over three books: 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. He is known by his city rather than by a nation or a tribe. Scripture calls him "of Gath" (1 Samuel 17:4) and "the Gittite" (2 Samuel 21:19; 1 Chronicles 20:5). No tribe or people is given for him beyond that.

How the Text Actually Names Him

It is worth saying at the outset what kind of material we have. Goliath is one of the best known names in the Bible, and yet the verses that carry his name are few and mostly brief. Two of them introduce him. Two of them speak of his sword after he is dead. Two of them concern a brother of his and the man who killed that brother. There is no recorded speech of Goliath preserved word for word, no account of his birth, no account of his burial.

The first mention is his entrance: "A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out" (1 Samuel 17:4). The measurement is left as the text gives it, six cubits and a span, and the title given him is champion.

The second mention repeats the entrance and adds a hearer: "As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and said the same words; and David heard them" (1 Samuel 17:23). What the words were, this verse does not record. It records only that they were the same words, spoken again, and that David heard them.

The Sword That Kept Speaking

After that, Goliath's name survives in the Bible chiefly by way of a weapon. A priest offers it to David: "Behold, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you would like to take that, take it; for there is no other except that here." David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me." (1 Samuel 21:9). Here, almost in passing, we are told the outcome of the confrontation: David killed him, and the place was the valley of Elah.

The sword is named once more, in a report of what the priest had done for David: "He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine" (1 Samuel 22:10). The champion's own weapon has become an item in an accusation, evidence handled by other men. The one who carried it is simply gone.

A Family of Fighting Men

Goliath is not alone in his line. He is listed as a son of Rapha (2 Samuel 21:16), and as brother to Ishbi-benob (2 Samuel 21:16), Saph (2 Samuel 21:18), Lahmi, and an unnamed huge man (2 Samuel 21:20). One of these brothers is named in a battle report: "Again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam" (1 Chronicles 20:5). A parallel notice reads: "There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam" (2 Samuel 21:19). The two verses differ in the name of Elhanan's father and in the place named; both are set down here as they stand, and neither is smoothed into the other.

What the Record Does Not Excuse

The Bible does not flatter this man. He is introduced by size and by the title champion, and he uses his voice in the hearing of Israel's camp (1 Samuel 17:23). The end of it is stated flatly by a priest years later, without drama: David killed him in the valley of Elah (1 Samuel 21:9). Whatever the champion of Gath was counting on, six cubits and a span did not hold. His sword ended up wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod, and then in the hand of the man who took his life.

What We Do Not Know

No children of Goliath are named. No tribe or people is given for him. And, strikingly for so famous a figure, the verses that carry his name are not a narrative of his own: every mention here is a notice, a list or a passing remark inside someone else's story. The content of his words, his history before he stepped out of the ranks, and the manner of his end in detail are not supplied in these passages. No New Testament passage is listed among the places where his name is found, so no line is drawn from him forward here.

What remains is a name attached to a city, a family of fighters, a valley, and a sword that others carried after him.